There is no such thing as Engagement Cake, Arcueid
by Mereo Flere
Summary: Arcueid learns a lot of things, with just a little bit of trouble.


"There's no such thing as an Engagement Cake, Arcueid" By Mereo Flere

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It all started, like many of these things do, with someone teaching Arcueid something they shouldn't have. It wasn't as though she was too dumb to understand the lessons; it was just that everybody that knew her tended to be spectacularly bad at explaining subjects. Shiki had warned them numerous times against doing this and, if they absolutely had to do it, to be careful while teaching her. After all, they had a bad habit of forgetting that Arcueid hadn't grown up with the same sort of upbringing as a regular person…

Actually, you couldn't even say that she had a life that resembled any human's at all. It was, truthfully, a little sad – though she never seemed to worry about it at all. That was one of the things that Shiki loved about her – that, as well as **those**.

But, uh, **those** weren't important at the moment. No, the important thing was that Arcueid was currently running around the mansion, being chased after Shiki's sister and his upperclassmen, dancing around the two girls' attacks and, in the process, destroying everything that got in their way.

Really, what were they thinking? Even when the two of them had worked in tandem they had never been able to defeat Arcueid. All they would manage to do was leave a big mess for Hisui and Kohaku to clean up in the morning – that, and make a certain furniture store continue their record breaking profits even in this recession.

Well, at least they had started to get a large volume discount…and who knows? Maybe Shiki could convince them to add nicer chairs to their inventory. The ones they currently had – no, _had_ had until Akiha just burned them to ashes just a moment ago – were/had been eyesores.

Ah, but he was getting off track again.

Earlier, Hisui had admitted that she had given the idea that it was wrong to have sex before marriage to Arcueid. Of course, curiosity got the better of Arcueid and, when she went to go look for Hisui to ask what marriage was about she had accidentally gone to Kohaku instead. Words like "bride," "groom" and "wedding" were then thrown around…

…and, to be honest, it probably wouldn't have interested Arcueid all that much (after all, it was just a silly human tradition) until Kohaku had blurted out the word "Cake."

Needless to say, "Cake" had excited Arcueid a lot. When Kohaku explained that wedding cakes generally tended to be very big, that made Arcueid even more excited. Naturally, Arcueid then asked how she would go about having a wedding and, well, there they were.

No, perhaps that was skipping a bit too far ahead.

You see, Kohaku explained there were many things necessary for a wedding. You needed a church, a witness, plenty of the common stuff; what really got Arcueid in trouble, though? It was the wedding invitations.

Up until then, nobody else had known about Arcueid's plans, including Shiki himself by the way. When she sent out those little cards, complete even with a request to RSVP, well, Akiha and Ciel had decided to hand their replies to the true ancestor personally.

"So, I'll take that as a maybe?" Arcueid asked, still fleeing from the two schoolgirls.

Shiki didn't know how it was possible, but Akiha and Ciel's attacks became _more_ vicious than before. For a moment, he thought it might be even possible that they could defeat his girlfriend. Fortunately, before he had to step in and make sure that exactly that didn't happen, Arcueid stopped running, finally fed up with the two's attacks. Then, unintentionally reminding Shiki how powerful the being he had once killed actually was, she knocked Akiha and Ciel out with one punch.

That wasn't one punch each. Arcueid literally beat the both of them with one punch; first Ciel, and then Akiha while Ciel was still on her fist. Shiki's sister and upperclassmen flew across the hallway, crashing through a couple of walls (it looked like some of the carpenters will be happy too, Shiki noted) before finally landing on the dinner table.

Thankfully, Hisui hadn't gotten around to setting up for lunch yet. He was pretty sure that Akiha and Ciel would be alright too; one was immortal, and Akiha wouldn't be brought down by something like that for long.

"Really," Arcueid said, pouting. "All you guys had to answer was chicken or fish."

Shiki sighed. Really, Kohaku had done a wonderful job explaining everything about a marriage it eems…except, of course, the most important parts.

"Arcueid," Shiki said, walking towards his lover.

"Ah, Shiki!" Arcueid said, running up to Shiki and hugging him. "There you are! Did you get your invitation?"

"Normally you don't invite the groom to his own wedding," Shiki said, though he held out the card for her to see nonetheless.

"Oh, is that so," she said sheepishly.

"Also, Kohaku forgot to tell you something," Shiki said, running a hand through his hair.

"What is it?"

"Well, you see, before you can have a wedding, you're supposed to have an engagement first."

"Oh, but we've alright fought each other before," Arcueid said, waving a hand. "Or have you forgotten the time you killed me?"

"No, I haven't," Shiki said, wincing. He wondered how many people had this kind of conversation with their girlfriend anyway. "It's a promise to marry."

"Oh. In that case," she said, smiling brightly – a beautiful smile that would have made him fall in love with her even more if it was possible. "I promise to marry you, Shiki!"

"It's not that simple," Shiki said, shaking its head. "There's a procedure to it."

"There're procedures for everything," Arcueid said with a sigh. "Why do you have to make it so complicated? Shouldn't loving each other be enough?"

"It's precisely because people love each other that it's important to do it right."

Arcueid paused, and then nodded in understand. "Then, how does it go?"

"Well, first," Shiki said, getting down to one knee. Then, after pulling out a small box from his pocket, "The man has to propose." With that, he popped open the box, revealing a golden ring. To be honest, this wasn't the way he had expected this to go…but, well, she had already sent the invitation. There was no point in going through this event again and having this fight happen for a second time.

Besides, when he thought about it he wasn't sure why he had delayed it for so long.

"That doesn't look like a cake," Arcueid said, sounding a little disappointed.

…and, that was why. Sometimes, even he forgot that he needed to explain everything carefully to her.

"There's no such thing as an engagement cake, Arcueid. Here," he said with a smile. "Let's start over, from the beginning."

He closed the box and put it back in his pocket - though he didn't intend to keep it there forever. After all, if it was worth doing at all then it was worth doing right.


End file.
